


The Long Road

by TwinkleHeartFudge



Series: The Golden Evergrande [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, M/M, Story Outline Dump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28705284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinkleHeartFudge/pseuds/TwinkleHeartFudge
Summary: Claude is not kind, his morals are scarily gray and pointed somewhere north, but slightly askew. One assassination attempt from when he was actually a kid had him hunting down his assassin and doing the exact same poisoning scheme that his assassin had attempted on him. Needless to say it works, and he didn’t have the roiling gut of pacifism when taking a life. He is no longer as affected as many are in the face of death (because he’s seen too much, been through too much, but he still has hope, still has reason to believe that people can change for the better.Outline version of Golden Evergrande since it seems like I've lost my muse to write it out as "show" rather than "tell".
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan
Series: The Golden Evergrande [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673497
Kudos: 11





	The Long Road

**Author's Note:**

> Lol apparently lists and outlining copy/paste from MSWord isn't one-to-one. enjoy sifting through the headache of bullets and numbers if you got this far lolol.

  1. Helper Lore 
    1. Healing magic in Almyra is greatly different from healing magic in Fodlan. They focus on medicinal concoctions, poultices and herbs rather than pure magic.
    2. Major Powers in Almyra (5) 
      1. Head of Military – Highest General
      2. High Priestess of the Dragon Temple
      3. Head of Civilian Council
      4. Merchant Guild
      5. Reigning King – if King is dead, the Second Minister or the current Queen can provide approval instead.


  1.     1. How the fuck does the Officer’s academy work 
      1. Students are inducted on a year by year basis no matter the age and they are expected to follow the curriculum for three years.
      2. Academy phase of canon only features one year because of the attack of the empire that cripples the church, and destroys the monastery
  2. Additional Characters 
    1. Marvasi 
      1. Priestess of Almyra, greatly beloved, and Claude’s betrothed in the paths where he doesn’t get a love interest from the main cast
      2. Is great with fire magic but is hopeless with regards to being a doctor, at least until she goes to Fodlan
      3. Almost always agrees to become an Almyran concubine for Claude (for the sake of this story)
      4. Is in love with a fellow priestess, but settles for Claude as the father of her son as it is what duty requires of her.
    2. Ikha


  1.     1.       1. Claude’s assistant in crime
      2. Bard/spy
      3. In a constant state of exasperation


  1. Pre-canon 
    1. Claude remembers when he’s 5. There’s an assassination attempt that he foils. It takes him maybe a few days to get his head on straight but he immediately tells his father, and proves his knowledge by being more eloquent, and providing information about state secrets that he would not have any right knowing if he hadn’t become king. He also tells his mother because he isn’t allowed to keep secrets from her because the last time that he tried it, he had been strung upside down from the terrace balcony of the second highest tower of the royal palace.
    2. Prince Areash of Almyra, because Claude is still 5, his father only becomes king when he turns 6, raises his standards in training, does not tell Nader, and says that it is up to Claude’s discretion as to who he would tell about his knowledge. 
      1. He starts rebuilding his acquired poison resistance, because starting earlier with the proper increase of toxins, and the right ways to flush the poison from his system so there will be no lingering effects in the long run. With the assistance of a trusted elderly doctor that wishes him nothing but the best.
      2. He is also gifted a white wyvern, an albino, unique among its kind.
      3. He names it Odessa, again.


  1. Becoming King in Almyra is a daunting task. You have to pass trial after trial and obtain the approval of 4 of 5 major powers in Almyra and even before that you have to prove that you have a blood relation to the first King of Almyra, the Founder Warrior King. Breaking bloodlines have PROBLEMS but Areash and Claude have no problem with that since they _are_ descendants of the Warrior King. 
    1. He aids his father in obtaining the favor of the High Priestess, befriending Marvasi, a minor priestess in the process.
    2. This will involve sneaking in the Dragon Temple with under false pretenses and pretending to learn how to be a Dragon Priest, and learning much about the Temples.


  * Marvasi sees through him, as Claude will never have friends that isn’t able to call him out on his bullshit.


  1. Marvasi later becomes beloved by the masses and replaces the Second Priestess.
  2. Claude assists Marvasi after she is struck by a jealous priestess, his hands glowing as a Heal soothes the burns on her hands. Marvasi is utterly awed.
  3. Claude feeds her what he knows of Faith magic, and Marvasi is fascinated. She has always wanted to learn how to heal, how to help people beyond teaching them the dances for the many Gods and Goddesses of Almyra. Beyond medicine made by hand. Beyond the teachings of the early dragons.


  * Claude manages to convince the High Priestess of his father’s legitimacy and bravery, all the while disparaging the efforts of another King competitor that had the misfortune of being in the same space as him of being a competitor to a (6 year old) a king beyond his years.
  * Claude promises Marvasi that he would return, and that he will tell her of possibilities of learning Faith magic. (He had taught her what little of Faith he knows without all the glamour of worship that the Fodlani had a penchant of.


  1. When he hits 8, his father is King and he’s experienced thirteen assassination attempts (again) but he knows better now, knows himself and the people around him better now. He does not waver.
  2. He asks to travel to Fodlan with only Ikha as a faithful shadow, and Odessa as his ‘pet’ wyvern. He ingratiates himself to a traveling merchant caravan and asks to be apprenticed to the leader of the caravan. There are people of varying nationalities in the caravan. He does not stand out as much as he thought, though Odessa catches a lot of eyes, being pure white and brilliant. Claude is absolutely brilliant though, he skirts the edges of the criminal underbelly of each town he passes by.
  3. He learns as much as he can from the merchants and his memory doesn’t fail him. He remembers each face he has come across, remembers their history, their past and their motivations. There is also a Duscurian man that he bugs everpresently about their language and their culture and everything there is to know about the country and the people. He has no title here. He has no standing that he needs to protect. He is only an urchin that managed to catch the eye of a savvy merchant because of his intellect. He also helps with the woodcutters in his travels because try as he might, he will never bulk up as much as Raphael but he needs to do what he can when he can. He does not need to be strong when he’s small. Small children need to be flexible with the endurance of a draft horse.
  4. 1 year is spent in Alliance lands. People think he’s a son of a captured Almyran woman, a servant of the Gonerils, but of course he isn’t, but of course he never says anything. (Claude might dislike Crests and their importance to society but he isn’t above using an advantage that he dislikes to further his own goals and dreams). He earns the title of “The Mediator" amongst the merchants and ware sellers. 
    1. He spends an inordinate amount of time wandering across the market and little birds always tweet to him where there’s trouble and he defuses so many situations with both sides of the argument getting their due. (Unless they happened to be an asshole, then they deserved everything coming to them.)
  5. The next year, the caravan travels to Faerghus. (Claude meets Dima, tiny tiny Dima, so cute like a button that Claude coos everytime he sees him) 
    1. Glenn and tiny!Dimitri are perusing the stalls in the market when a cute ribbon catches Dimitri’s eye but the merchant sees the fine quality of their clothes, them obviously being nobility but has no idea this is the Prince, hikes the price up like Glenn’s eyebrows when he hears the amount. Dimitri counts coins in his pouch and starts being sad and Glenn almost starts a fight but before he could open his mouth, Claude cuts in, very tiny 9 year old, smiling sharply, and pipes up cheerfully. “I _must_ have heard that wrong.” The Merchant pales, recognizing the single dangling golden earring and the vivid green eyes (of a tiny child bundled up in thick thick furs), “I think you meant half that much?”
    2. Claude doesn’t recognize them at first, due to high hoods, and he manages to keep his surprise hidden when he sees familiar blue eyes.


  * Dimitri manages to buy the ribbon with the money he brought but Glenn doesn’t have a gift yet. Claude deems them hopeless, and guides them through the marketplace being greeted all the while by different store owners, sometimes for Dimitri, sometimes for Claude, sometimes both. Glenn spots a necklace that Claude recognizes Ingrid wears sometimes and realizes that her birthday was near. Claude grins and hands Dimitri a ribbon as well, a braided cord of yellow and blue ( two ribbons be bought from the same merchant Dimitri bought Ingrid’s). “I think long hair would suit you.” Claude compliments genuinely, remembering the long tresses that Dimitri had in the future, his hand fingers ghosting over the shoulder length bangs, as Glenn separates from them a bit to ask for the necklace. Dimitri bursts into a brilliant crimson. (Claude doesn’t realize until later how incredibly inappropriate that had been, but Dimitri had always been easy to fluster, so he hadn’t thought that it had come off as flirting, but it definitely was)


  1. And lol Glenn is also socially awkward like Felix but with less sharp edges, so he doesn’t realize what’s happening.
  2. Claude spends a lot of time with the Royal entourage after that. Many times he’s tempted to just activate his crest, just to see the faces of those smug nobles who think they can be better friends to Dimitri than he could. But he doesn’t. He’s playing the long game. He doesn’t have time for the petty squabbles of children.
  3. Sylvain is a dear friend but Claude remembers Miklan and the rare moment that the redhead had confided in Byleth (and Claude had been in earshot so sue him). Maybe Claude could do something about it. Claude could already see his frayed edges.


  * Ingrid is softer than he remembers and she’s absolutely smitten with Glenn. She even carried with her a fluffy teddy bear.
  * Felix surprises Claude the most. He tiny and adorable. Clingy to Dimitri and a whole lotta crybaby. Claude seems to bring out his bad side though, thinks it’s jealousy why Felix glares at him over Dimitri's shoulder. Or when Claude captures Dimitri’s attention with stories and people. This stops though when Felix overhears one of the other noble children gossiping behind their back about the mutt that wormed his way into the tight knit royal entourage, the jeerers taking potshots at someone that isn’t present. He defends Claude then, knows that Claude isn’t bad, he’s just jealous that Dimitri stares at Claude like he hung the stars, and listened to his words like they were holy gospel. That Dimitri has only known his a few days and he’s already enamored. Felix is nothing if not honest and blunt.


  1. This ‘fraternization’ is almost stopped when Sylvain's asshole father, uhhh, Julius, finds out that they’ve been hanging around a crestless commoner. Rodrigue stops this though. And manages to make Claude raise his regard for him. Racism is still abound though, and Rodrigue only stops it due to Ingrid and Glenn vouching for his character.
  2. They become friends, share stories and tea. Claude shows them incredible marksmanship and the ease in which he handles horses. Stargazing, sparring etc.
  3. Claude schemes though, he puts seeds of thoughts inside their heads, seeds of a future development. Of chivalry and its downsides, of honor and its sacrifices. Of his opinion on life and dishonor before death. They aren’t always well received but Claude tries.


  * He spends most of his time with Dimitri and Glenn, as everyone has their own duties and responsibilities to fulfill.
  * It’s in the eighth month, that Claude says he will ride back to Derdriu before winter rages.
  * They send him off with roast pheasant and an armful of gifts.


  1. (He never tells them his real name, let them be surprised later)


  * Dimitri learns much from Claude. He sees him as admirable, being the same age as him, but better at so many things, with wit sharp as steel, and the cheer to brighten up a room with his presence alone. He is not quiet in expressing his admiration. Also his budding crush on the merchant child does wonders for his heart. (Claude silences the voices in his head that says he does not deserve what he has). Claude braids Dimitri’s hair and often compliments it, the color, the texture and a small wish that it should grow longer. Dimitri resolves to keep his hair long. (You deserve the world.) (You are precious.) Warm words echo in Dimitri’s ears. Claude himself knows that nothing will ever be handed to him on a silver platter, everything he has, he has earned through grit and determination. It echoes in his movements, in his doubts, but that is only when he allows himself to wallow. He does not.
  * Claude shares with Dimitri and only Dimitri his dream of opening borders, of learning that people are just people whatever colors they come in, whatever cultures they belong to. He does not quite trust the others yet, as he remembers Ingrid’s hesitance to trust others. Dimitri though, Claude may not always be able to predict him, may sometimes be surprised by this ever earnest prince, soft and squishy, but he knows his heart is good. Claude knows Dimitri will be great if he is given the chance.
  * Dimitri ever slowly falls in love and he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself. (he doesn’t have naughty dreams until he’s fifteen, but that’s another story altogether)
  * Claude talks of high war and low war, high war being a matter of attrition and might, low war being the battle of wits, luck and people. Dimitri listens with an intent ear.


  1. The few months spent in Faerghus gives Claude time to breathe. He travels with the caravan for three years, most of the summer months spent in Fhirdiad, most of the winter months spent in Derdriu. Only a month is spent inside the Adrestian Empire for the duration of his ‘apprenticeship’ under the caravan leader, and this isn’t really a choice on Claude’s part. The caravan he was in just happened to have a competitor that stays most of the time in Adrestia that his merchant mentor just doesn’t like going there, even if he does trade quite a bit with other Adrestian merchants. 
    1. Most of the merchants he talks to expects him to be the next leader of the caravan, and he does nothing to dissuade or encourage the notion. His mentor already knows that he isn’t going to stay. That he’s already been pegged as someone who will go much higher in life than just a leader of a caravan. Claude just smiles and doesn’t say a word. It’s not about trust, he just doesn’t see the need to announce that he’s a prince of this nation or the apparent heir to this nation, because he loves the anonymity that this gives him. The freedom of movement and lack of the shackles that comes with power. (His mentor does lament his lack of will to stay though, he’s getting old and he needs to have a person who would be able to take over for him when he’s gone, and that isn’t going to be Claude)
    2. (All the while Ikha keeps him informed of the comings and goings of the politics of Almyra, Derdriu, Fhirdiad and Enbarr)


  * Derdriu is as he remembers it being, all squabbling nobles, and noise and instability of positions, but he isn’t heir right now, he isn’t the only remaining choice to be Duke Riegan and he doesn’t know if he wishes to meddle and alter the course of the Alliance more than he already has. He has never heard anything good about Godfrey von Riegan from either his mother or grandfather. If Godfrey does not die, or is no longer eligible to be Duke Riegan then that is good for Claude. He would not raise a hand however. It is not his call.


  1. Instead he still introduces himself as a person from the merchant caravan. People assume he is a child of Almyra, that his mother is one of the servants in the noble houses, and he says _yes_. His mother is in Almyra right now and he hasn’t heard from her in years. Which is both true and misleading. Clara von Riegan is in Almyra but she is not _from_ Almyra as everyone thinks and suggests. (Almyra and Fodlan has been in war for almost a century now, and the borders are locked tight and only prisoners from both sides cross the mountain ranges that separate Fodlan from the fields of Almyra.) Recently though, the skirmishes at the border has died down. The Alliance assumes this is because of Holst’s competence, but he is still just twenty, the Gonerils hold the fort as well as they can, but Claude can recognize his mother’s fingerprints everywhere. The placements of the wyverns, the de-escalation of skirmishes.
  2. Claude can also see bits and pieces of Marvasi’s handiwork. He remembers her speech from the future when he was vying for peace between their nations and Marvasi, the then high Priestess had been the keystone to convincing Almyra of the benefits of peace.
  3. _We have been fighting the war of our ancestors. We do not even remember the reason that we are at war. We are not a bloodthirsty nation, our reason to fight no longer exists but we send out children out to battle, we continue to wreak havoc on those that only want to leave a peaceful life. The borders are bloody and for what end? To conquer? Predators only hold the exact amount of territory they can hold and here we are squabbling for more land, for more power when we already have an abundance of it. Revaneva is already annexed into Almyra, Ikatha still fights on its borders against Almyra. Sreng’s might is only enough to ward off the Almyran host. We are fighting on three fronts and we do not even focus on our people. If they invade, in an attempt to conquer, we will ward them off with extreme prejudice. If they keep quiet, or reach out a friendly hand, we do the same. Is that not a courtesy?_


  1. Claude is 11 when he leaves the caravan on a spring day. There are no tears shed, just see you somewhere and somewhens. (Claude lied, he may have shed a tear or two) He sends a letter to Faerghus that he might not be able to visit in a while, maybe years (Dimitri pouts for days upon days)
  2. He approaches Judith with a letter from his mother right after he leaves the caravan, delivered by an ever exasperated Ikha, because no Claude I’m not a goddamned messenger, I’m a spy goddamnit. Claude only formally introduces himself to Judith. (She does not know he is royalty either, just Almyran, _half-_ Almyran and that is how Claude prefers it.) He already has allies in Almyra. Allies that he knows will be forces not to be messed with. Judith asks for information regarding Claude and she likes what she hears from the merchants who know him by name and the commoners who he’s helped with an assortment of things.
  3. He introduces himself as Judith’s ward, Judith’s squire, eager to learn under the Hero of Daphnel. Judith finds it utterly amusing. Here, he is still only just _Claude_ , with no titles or a last name. He spends a year in Derdriu, witnessing a Roundtable conference, several tourneys, and squabbling nobles while shadowing Judith all the while. He knows that Godfrey will still die, the glint in Lord Gloucester’s eyes are too obvious. It’s only a matter of He sends Ikha to _provoke_ Gloucester into moving, and Claude feels a bit dirty, planning this, but there is no reason for him to stay his hand. Godfrey _had_ let out a stream of expletives and racial slurs the moment he saw Claude one step to the left and one step behind Judith, and Claude hasn’t forgiven him for it yet.
  4. He spends one year and eight months in Derdriu and Daphnel shadowing Judith, giving her assistance when needed and leaves when he turns 13. Judith expects him to be back, and people wonder what happened to Judith’s faithful shadow. Judith only says that she sent him somewhere to become more worldly.
  5. He hits 13 on the road back to Almyra. He has three years to solidify his position as a prince before he goes on a ‘sabbatical’ to improve himself, and return maybe almost a decade later with so many accomplishments under his belt.
  6. (how to handle duscur) ?? - Dimitri is 14 
    1. Claude knows it happened, but he doesn’t know the specifics of it, or who are the ones responsible, since in VW, which is where he comes from, the Tragedy isn’t much of a focus for many people. _Maybe_ Claude would have been able to ask about it, but it was war then, he doesn’t have a lot of time for himself. _Maybe_ Sylvain could have confided in him in one of the brief moments in battle, but that little amount of information can only help so much. He doesn’t even know the correct dates for it.
    2. So it surprises him that he hears from Ikha about a Faerghus delegation to Duscur and Claude almost _panics._ So that was what had been clawing at the back of his mind. Sylvain had only mentioned it offhandedly, so _casually_ that Claude has winced at the callousness, and so hadn’t remembered it before this.


  * Maybe they can push for better relations with Duscur, or Claude can do something to prevent the Royal Family to go to Duscur, maybe some sort of poison that would just give them stomachaches, though that could easily backfire on him if anyone finds out. He could waylay them on the way to Duscur, but… He has no _voice_ in Faerghus. The northern Kingdom is too far for him to do _anything_. He’s still in the midst of earning the trust and admiration of the servants in Shaharzad, in the midst of proving himself to the warriors of Almyra.


  1. Or… he could ask Judith to keep an ear out. Inform her of a possible assassination attempt on the Faerghus Royalty, maybe send some soldiers to assist, or also inform the Galateas of the possible trouble.
  2. Claude resolves to protect Dimitri as well.
  3. Claude is not there when the delegation leaves, and he does not have enough power to stop them, nor the power to go against the Agarthans who are vying for power. At least not yet, not now when he’s still building up powerbases and loyal people, all the while hiding from Those Who Slither in the Dark.


  * He’s used to moving when he doesn’t have power, when nobody is allowing him to even step on the playing field. So he asks Ikha to look for a mage so cowardly, so dastardly cowardly and hands her a warp staff, (a special kind of warp staff that would amplify warp magic casted with it. It had been made with the cooperation of Linhardt and Lysithea in the future and Claude had managed to find an Almyran researcher curious enough about it to try and recreate it, with all of Claude’s knowledge on the subject). It fed on blood and death, and the more death and blood there is on the battlefield, the further they can be taken.
  * (In a few weeks, they appear in a flash of light in the middle of the night, in the center of the Almyran shooting range, out of nowhere, Dimitri and Glenn are bloody and pale with pursuers in their tracks but there are guards inside the palace walls that manage to assist them.)


  1. Claude is at a loss. He’s done all he can to prevent it, but it seems like fate has a way of taking him by surprise.
  2. Dimitri and Glenn are given medical assistance, but they are foreigners, from a land that has been at war with Almyra for upwards of a century, so they are also prisoners. Glenn is injured heavily, a spear piercing through his torso, thankfully missing any major organs, it takes him weeks to recover. Dimitri is pale and manic, drenched heavily in denial, and does not leave Glenn’s bedside.
  3. The Almyrans do not know what to make of these two broken children, because that is what they are, children that have been inflicted with trauma so deep that it would unsettle those even older than them. Claude appears in the infirmary after talking with his father, (after hearing of the strangers that appeared out of nowhere, and telling him that these two are aristocrats, these two are possible heirs to a kingdom to the west. A Prince and their loyal knight. Areash asks more questions about these people in the future and Claude does his best to tell their stories as best as he can). Dimitri sees him and breaks down. 
    1. _They’re dead, they’re dead, they’re all dead._ Dimitri sobs into Claude’s chest, Claude draws small circles into Dimitri’s wrist, and runs his hand through blonde hair ( _long_ blonde hair with a braid in the side tied into the ponytail, and a familiar ribbon tying it all together). Claude does not say it will be fine. He says _you’re okay, you’re safe, I’ll protect you._ Dimitri falls asleep like this. Claude halts his scurrying around the palace and helps Dimitri.
    2. Claude may be royalty, but he doesn’t want them to know that. But… maybe if it’s Dimitri…
    3. Dimitri spends three days listlessly, sobbing through the night that Claude insists that they share a bed, like the first night Dimitri had cried. Dimitri doesn’t protest. Claude’s heart hurts for him.
    4. Claude wants to just keep Dimitri here, wants to just keep him tucked under his sheets, presumed dead by everyone in Fodlan. It might just be what Dimitri needs, but… maybe at least until Glenn heals. Claude will not take Dimitri’s choice away.
    5. On the fourth day, Claude will give him a window to rise. To work through his grief. Maybe beating up some Almyrans that challenge him to a fight (because of Claude’s spreading rumors of the visitor being a warrior prince of a foreign land).


  * It’s later that he hears the Galateas had sent a battalion of Pegasus knights to keep a distance, from the delegations as a safeguard, and they manage to save some soldiers but not the Queen or any of the other aristocrats. Judith raised the concern quietly to the Galatea and the Galatea had just been _concerned_ about the lack of security that they wished to add a few more guards with the permission of the King.
  * Rufus has also assumed the throne of Faerghus in the absence of Dimitri, who was still too young.
  * (two weeks pass and Claude assists Dimitri through everything, helping him, and also giving him a rough shove every now and then) Dimitri is the type that you cannot leave alone or he will _break_ under the pressure, under the amount of emotions that he feels. 
    1. In the middle of the second week, Claude throws Marvasi at Dimitri and she tells him of loss and anger and philosophies, and Dimitri comes back with red eyes and a sore throat but he felt lighter, lighter than Claude expects him to be.
    2. Marvasi guides Dimitri through meditation and is ever so patient.
    3. _(Breathe, breathe.)_ The best revenge is living well. Marvasi repeats to him, asks him to repeat it as well. _However_ , Marvasi states, there is also _vendetta_ that needs to be addressed. 
      1. _If you cannot live under the same sun as the ones who have wronged you, then we will assist you as best as we can._
    4. ( _You owe me so fucking much)_ Marvasi mouths to Claude with a glare that could burn the sun, then faces Dimitri with a gentle smile (the _two faced_ woman).
    5. She leaves after a day, and asks Claude to guide Dimitri through meditation in her place, because she’s only passing by, and needs to return to her own duties in the Dragon Temple.


  1. Claude talks Dimitri through it, inside the infirmary, (Glenn wakes up somewhere in the middle of the conversation). (Glenn being alive is a balm on Dimitri’s grief.) 
    1. Claude does not treat Dimitri like glass, he treats him as he would deserve, a child grieving of loss. He comforts him. He asks for details, for information about the attacker and he speaks of possibilities.
    2. Dimitri has not yet finished grieving, but he is no longer crippled by his grief. Maybe he will never finish, but.
    3. Rufus cannot be king. He is too weak willed for that position. It will give the Agarthans foothold in Faerghus that they cannot afford. Dimitri needs to take a stand. He needs to hold this power.
    4. Claude tells Dimitri of what he knows is happening. The instatement of Rufus, the discrimination against Duscur, and the preparations for laying siege in Duscur for their apparent involvement in the Assassination.
    5. Glenn wakes up cursing them. What the fuck do they mean by _Duscur_ being the ones that attacked them, the fuckers. He needs to get back to Faerghus ASAP and where the fuck was he. (Let Glenn swear 2k19)
    6. (The people are grieving the loss of the entire royal family, they did not see Dimitri or Glenn, but they saw a lot of dead and think that even the two of these people are dead, and maybe they would be if Claude hadn’t meddled, if that mage hadn’t cast the spell properly.)
    7. Claude says sheepishly that they’re in Almyra.
    8. Glenn asks how the fuck they got there
    9. Claude explains his bad feeling and the staff that he gave to Mercasia the Mage.
    10. Glenn is absolutely suspicious. Of course lol. Claude _is_ keeping lots of secrets.
    11. Dimitri explodes at Glenn telling him how helpful Claude has been and that he isn’t right to be suspicious. Then he bursts into tears, also very relieved that Glenn is alive, gives him a hug and Glenn just lets his arms hang awkwardly at his sides. (He sends Claude a glare saying that this isn’t fucking over until I say it is, we’ll still need to fucking talk how the fuck you know all this, and how the fuck—) but settles on comforting Dimitri.


  * Glenn _does_ corner Claude after Dimitri is calm, discovering that the two had been sharing a bed for as long as he had been unconscious, flaring overprotective bro instincts. Claude explains as best as he can without any lies, to both Dimitri and Glenn. 
    1. There exists a group of people who are older than they appear, older than known civilization that is trying to usurp power in Fodlan by creating and sowing chaos. That they could take over _people_. He knows of this because, he says, that they found a possessed noble Almyran who had instigated unfounded skirmishes, ( a lie, but he Claude covers his tracks well).
    2. Claude does not know much about them but there are oral traditions passed through the priestesses in the Dragon Temple about these people.
    3. Glenn doesn’t hold back, and mentions that Patricia had been suspicious the entire time they were there. She was fidgeting and smiling, as if waiting for something to happen.
    4. Dimitri is shaken by the thought and Claude takes his hand and kisses it, effectively shutting Dimitri down to a flustered mess, rather than anything else. It’s a tactic he finds is absolutely effective, but Claude doesn’t really think much of it and doesn’t see it as _flirting_. Because Dimitri is tiny right now, and Claude, while he had been incredibly attracted to the towering man and the awkward teen, he finds that Dimitri is more cute and adorable, someone to be teased and protected rather than pursued.
    5. “Stop _doing_ that!” Dimitri complains, face beet red, eyes dilated.
    6. Claude just grins, and while Glenn is grateful that Dimitri doesn’t break down, he’s _protective_. Though he couldn’t, in good conscience, as Dimitri to stay away from Claude.
    7. Although shovel talk
  * This gives Claude an opening to show that the Fodlani are not weak or cowards. (Several Almyran witness Dimitri bending heavy silverware with his tiny fingers and just _stare)_. They also see Glenn shouting expletives at thin air and stabbing training dummies then turning it into an icicle, a ball of fire, or electrocuted by lightning depending on the day.
  * Claude sees them off, sending Nader with them as they travel through Almyra and back to Faerghus. It would take weeks of travel before they could get back, but the time away from responsibilities would help. 
    1. Claude gives Dimitri another blue and yellow ribbon, this one more intricate.
    2. “Your hair is really beautiful.” Claude mentions and Dimitri’s hand flies to his ear, tucking a stray lock of hair, his cheeks burning. He looks absolutely pleased. “It looks really nice when it’s long.”
    3. Claude, on a whim, presses a light kiss on Dimitri’s cheek and pats his head. “Have a safe journey.” Then he steps away.
    4. Dimitri is frozen in place, heart racing when Glenn exasperatedly pulls at him, saying that they have to leave


  1. Claude is not kind, his morals are scarily gray and pointed somewhere north, but slightly askew. One assassination attempt from when he was actually a kid had him hunting down his assassin and doing the exact same poisoning scheme that his assassin had attempted on him. Needless to say it works, and he didn’t have the roiling gut of pacifism when taking a life. He is no longer as affected as many are in the face of death (because he’s seen too much, been through too much, but he still has hope, still has reason to believe that people can change for the better.
  2. So what happens in Faerghus? Rodrigue doesn’t let Rufus take the reins. 
    1. Claude had ordered Ikha to slip hallucinogenics into the man’s drinks and he had disgraced himself by publicly breaking down again and again, prompting Rodrigue to step up as King Regent while Dimitri is young. 
      1. In this vein, the Agarthans are looking for Ikha, but Ikha is slippery as well, he knows when to hide and when to move. They think him some kind of wraith from the past. He has ruined many of their plans, but Ikha can shed his skin, and pretend to be another. They will never be able to find him.
      2. Better if they encounter each other, and Ikha manages to survive thanks to Shamir’s intervention.
      3. Shamir only assists then leaves. (Maybe for the future?)
    2. Glenn takes the mantle of Fraldarius Head when he returns, leaving Rodrigue enough time to be the king Regent. He leaves Dimitri’s side, but attaches Felix in his place.


  * Dimitri is kept up to date with matters of state, no longer as powerless as he had been in canon


  1. Cornelia still has boatloads of influence but Glenn is already suspicious, with information on shapeshifters, thinks that Cornelia is a _problem_. He raises this to his father, not saying where he gets the information from, but keeps it quiet, extremely quiet.
  2. The masses are still against Duscur, but with several surviving nobles, and knights from the Galatea speaking of Duscurian deaths and the enemy not being of Duscur silences them. They rage, not knowing who the enemy is, but ultimately they can only blame Duscur. Someone points a finger to the Duke Rufus and they run with it. Rodrigue doesn’t know how to do damage control.
  3. Rufus is stripped of his lands and titles, handing over his lands to the Gautier.


  * Dedue’s family is almost killed by a soldier whose family died in the Tragedy and _Felix_ steps in to save him. Dimitri arrives right after him, and the soldier sinks to his knees in shame. He tells of his story, and his grief, and Dimitri cannot give him salvation, but he gives him a purpose. “If you no longer have any reason to live, then let _the prince_ be it.” Felix snarls. Dedue hears this, and is moved but he doesn’t swear to serve Dimitri. He will think on this for a while.


  1. It’s two years into supporting King Areash of Almyra’s reign when his mother receives a letter from Judith asking for Claude. It’s a year early, and Claude can only feel so (re)gr(ate)(ful). 
    1. Godfrey is wounded fatally and the doctors do not expect him to live past the week.
    2. Judith sends a letter early.


  * Grandpa Riegan wants to see his grandson before he agrees to anything.


  1. Derdriu – Rising as Riegan 
    1. Before leaving Almyra, Claude pays Marvasi a visit.
    2. He tells her of his dream, of his ambitions, and asks her is she still wishes to learn Faith magic. She does. She has three choices laid in front of her. 
      1. _You can hide like I did, pretend to be Fodlani with an Almyran parent. But your skin will not let you blend in, will not let you be unnoticed in a crowd._
      2. _Or you can pretend to be an Albinean noble, of which I know you can pull off well as you have gone to Albinea and you can speak their language as well as Almyran. You cannot deny your Almyran heritage but you will be an Albinean first and foremost. This is the safest option given the right method, but also has a large risk, if you are not careful. The church can brand you a heretic the moment you speak of Goddesses beyond their single one. You can be outed as an Almyran spy were your identity be suspect._


  * _The last choice is my recommended one. You go to Fodlan as Marvasi of the Dragon Temple._


  1. Marvasi hesitates, but listens.
  2. _When I give you the signal, approach the borders with a while flag. You will have to make a showing beforehand of scolding the commanders, of telling them violence will not solve this war. Then you approach Fodlan’s Throat. Ask for Holst Goneril and talk to no one else. Ask for parley, try to open a dialogue. This will be a matter of trust. Bring a letter from the High Priestess of her approval of you going to Garreg Mach to study. I will also send a letter in the name of the Crown Prince of Almyra._


  1. Speech 
    1. I wish for peace, but that will not happen unless we understand each other. Even when we understand we still will not be able to agree, but I wish to try. We no longer remember why it is that we fight. Power is no excuse for violence.
    2. Holst agrees Marvasi’s proposition, of her to attend the school along with an attendant of her choosing, she chooses Ikha as per Claude’s suggestion. Though Holst raises that he still needs the approval of the church before this is done. Marvasi will be a Golden Deer.


  * When Rhea hears of this, she almost declines it, but it is _only_ two people from the outside. It is not like there haven’t been foreigners in this land. But she will not see them, will not acknowledge them as they do no believe nin Mother and that is a sin in itself. If they learn the will of the Goddess, worship the Goddess and Seiros then Rhea has no complaint. (Or she does, but Seteth somehow manages to convince her)


  1. After his uncle dies and the heir to House Riegan is no more. 
    1. There are so many things that he might be able to do this time, when he doesn’t have the wide eyed ignorance that he carried before he went to Fodlan, without the need to catch up to everyone else, because this time, they are the ones that need to catch up to him, and not the other way around.
    2. He goes to House Daphnel, talks to Judith, and tell her about his mother. She asks him if he wants her to raise him as a candidate for inheriting the Dukedom of Riegan, and Claude instead, says that he wishes to be considered a candidate, but at the same time knows that no one in this part of the Throat knows him like they do before (even when he himself already knows their motivations and the secrets that they tried so hard to bury).


  * Judith’s words hold water, and he is raised as a candidate. 
    1. The proof is in his blood, the Crest of Riegan.
    2. He slices his arm open with a clean knife and his wound stitches itself right before their eyes, a glittering moon hovering above his head, a clear manifestation of the Riegan crest.


  1. There is uproar, just like last time, but Claude has already had his fair share of disbelief in his ambitions that it slides off his back without much effort. He does miss Hilda though, because that girl, if no one else, manages to keep him so very grounded (so much so that maybe he spends too much time with his face in the dirt).
  2. There are deeper shadows in his eyes, and he knows better to hold his posture, put down teacups noiselessly like those who were born with silver, not stone. To speak with big words that impresses the nobles, but also, in the same sentence, use slang with a sly grin to unsettle them.
  3. He befriends those that need to be befriended, act wide eyed and easily manipulated to who would no sooner want him gone from his seat if he showed even the slightest bit of shrewdness.


  * Merchants know him by reputation that he’d built when he was younger.
  * He still hides his Almyran blood, not that it does him any good. His skin marks him an outsider, of those that do not follow their almighty Goddess (Goddamn Rhea) but people outside those who’s fought Almyrans know its significance.


  1. Everyone who does him disservice due to his birth is met with doe-eyed misty jade towards their sympathetic wives. Claude knows that the powers that lie in these noble houses lie with the ladies of the house, and proceeds to ingratiate himself with them. Armed with their ideals and their histories, he knows exactly what they want and how he would be able to give it to them.
  2. (One of the tea times he spent with one of the lady nobles resulted in said lady noble crying in his shoulder and lamenting the fact that her husband wouldn’t go home so long as he could fight at the Throat, to defend them from Almyrans when they try to invade again, and she just wants him _home._
    1. Claude promises her that he would do what he can to send him home.
    2. He sends Shuan’a a hit for said husband, but only to cripple him enough that he would be a liability in battle, and he would need to be sent to light duty or sent home, where he could mind his familial assets.
    3. Said lady noble rallies to his side and gives him a thankful glance and promises to support him, so long as his goals don’t directly go against hers.
  3. He secures alliances, avoids assassinations like he breathes, all the while trying to mend bridges between houses in the alliance when his grandfather declares him heir over Holst and Lorenz. It brings a familiar weight on his shoulders, but he doesn’t have all the responsibility yet. His grandfather slowly gives him tasks of rising magnitude, and it gets to the point that he’s the one handling each and every transaction ang legalese that doesn’t need to be done face to face.


  * His grandfather then confronts him. 
    1. “I do not believe it as readily as our mother would. You are older than you appear, aren’t you?” Grandpa says, voice rasping.
    2. Claude just smiles, a genuine one. “And you have some years on you yet. I don’t plan on taking over until you’ve lived our last, grandpa..”
    3. “Evasive answer. You pass.”
    4. “Aren’t you curious?”
    5. “Oh yes, deadly curious. Have you never wondered where you got your tendency to sneak and snoop?”
    6. Claude’s eyes brightens. “I see, I see.”
    7. “You don’t have to tell me anything.”
    8. “I’m from the future.”
    9. And he explains, his grandpa just nods and takes it all in with no small amount of disbelief and belief at the same time.
    10. “I see. You have my support, Claude.
    11. Claude just grins.
    12. (His ambition is one that would kill him if he so much as makes a small misstep, if it reaches the wrong ears, if he trusts just the wrong person, every effort that he makes will be for nothing.)
    13. He’s introduced to many nobles before this, but it is the first time he meets Hilda once more. He has so much ammunition that she doesn’t, and Claude just laments the relationship that he’s lost, but this is also a chance. 
      1. He doesn’t underestimate her again.
      2. She may be young but she’s still deadly sharp.


  * It only takes a month this time, for him to be instated as the heir to House Riegan. 
    1. The proof of his legitimacy is overwhelming.
    2. People had seen him hanging around Judith a while back, and the people _know_ They know he is fair and competent. That is what matters in the Alliance 
      1. If he can do what he does in the marketplace in the roundtable, then maybe, just maybe, they would be able to be great.
    3. There were some whispers about him being the reason for Godfrey’s death, but that was _Gloucester_ ’s fault, and not his. Even if he’d provoked the man into moving early.


  1. Claude is heir to House Riegan for a year before he’s enrolled in Garreg Mach. 
    1. Lorenz still harbors a fuckton of disbelief, most of it is fed by his father’s heavy dislike for Claude since he ruins plans upon plans
  2. He arrives at Garreg Mach two weeks before classes start, and one of the first to arrive at the Monastery.
  3. When Dimitri arrives his hair is long, with some bangs framing his face, and blonde hair in a high ponytail, a familiar yellow and blue ribbon tying his hair. Claude want to tug at it, make it loose and see it halo around the crown prince’s head, scratch at the blonde’s scalp and _._. 
    1. (He gave Dimitri a buttplug as a joke before he left for that last summer, the prince ever so clueless about what it was and he doesn’t know how much action that dildo has had since he’s left)
    2. Wow dirty joke idk if this is real lol, wtv maybe omake


  * (Sylvain has almost choked when he saw what it was)


  1. Garreg Mach – Maybe Volume 2, Volume 1 is already long af, esp. if I even try to put more of Almyra here 
    1. Idk what to do in here yet, but I just hc Claude as knowing the names of each and every single one of the Golden Deer
    2. Ferdinand becoming his friend, Hilda being a partner in crime.




End file.
